Adler Real Estate PartnersOffers vertically integrated real estate investment services, focusing on the acquisition and operations of multi-tenant office and industrial properties throughout the Eastern and Southern United States.

Adler Real Estate Partners

Offers vertically integrated real estate investment services, focusing on the acquisition and operations of multi-tenant office and industrial properties throughout the Eastern and Southern United States.

Miami

FL

Advance PublicationsOperates a holding company that owns a vast array of media properties such as newspapers, magazines, and other publications.

Advance Publications

Operates a holding company that owns a vast array of media properties such as newspapers, magazines, and other publications.

Staten Island

NY

Advantage Rent A CarProvides rental car services throughout the nation.

Advantage Rent A Car

Provides rental car services throughout the nation.

San Antonio

TX

Advent InternationalOperates a global private equity and investment company

Ampacet CorporationManufactures and distributes color concentrates and additive masterbatches for flexible and rigid packaging, consumer products, and industrial products and applications around the world.

Ampacet Corporation

Manufactures and distributes color concentrates and additive masterbatches for flexible and rigid packaging, consumer products, and industrial products and applications around the world.

Tarrytown

NY

AmwaySpecializes in multi-level marketing to sell health, beauty, and home care products.

Amway

Specializes in multi-level marketing to sell health, beauty, and home care products.

Manufactures and sells steel and iron components, including bars, rods and wires.

Mequon

WI

Chick-fil-A Inc.Sells fast food products, such as fried chicken and chicken sandwiches, through its restaurants around the United States.

Chick-fil-A Inc.

Sells fast food products, such as fried chicken and chicken sandwiches, through its restaurants around the United States.

Atlanta

GA

Chief Industries, Inc.Manufactures ethanol and agricultural supplies.

Chief Industries, Inc.

Manufactures ethanol and agricultural supplies.

Grand Island

NE

ChobaniProduces and sells food products such as Greek yogurt, yogurt and related snacks.

Chobani

Produces and sells food products such as Greek yogurt, yogurt and related snacks.

Norwich

NY

Christofferson, Robb & Company, LLCOffers investment advisory services and invests in companies that are a part of alternative markets, as an employee owned hedge fund sponsor.

Christofferson, Robb & Company, LLC

Offers investment advisory services and invests in companies that are a part of alternative markets, as an employee owned hedge fund sponsor.

New York

NY

ChubbOffers insurance products to individuals, families and businesses, such as home, automobile, liability and accident insurance.

Chubb

Offers insurance products to individuals, families and businesses, such as home, automobile, liability and accident insurance.

Warren Township

NJ

Chugach Alaska CorporationEngages in business in the facilities management, construction and engineering, technical and IT, education, oil and gas, and subcontracting industries through an umbrella of companies.

Chugach Alaska Corporation

Engages in business in the facilities management, construction and engineering, technical and IT, education, oil and gas, and subcontracting industries through an umbrella of companies.

Zones, Inc.Creates a variety of products used by businesses, such a printers and software

Zones, Inc.

Creates a variety of products used by businesses, such a printers and software

Auburn

WA

Being public once was the ultimate affirmation of corporate success. If Wall Street blessed your company by selling your stock--and taking a cut, of course--you joined the pantheon of American businesses. But not every company wants a seat in the stock market temples. The irascible, nearly invisible Forrest Mars Sr. let a candy, M&M’s, do the talking for him. Amar Bose, an electrical engineer and revered MIT faculty member, created a breakthrough loudspeaker that let his namesake company compete with consumer elec­tronics giants. But Bose was described as someone "addicted to innovation," a pursuit he knew was better suited to a private company, which his remains.

The Inc. Private Titans list offers a window into both this history and an emerging trend in American business: Private companies are becoming the preferred vehicle for unfettered growth. Freed from the burden of quarterly earnings reports and Wall Street’s what-have-you-done-for-me-lately attitude, the Private Titans are able to steer a steadier course. This freedom to innovate drives newer companies such as Slack or Warby Parker as much as it does the 165-year-old Levi Strauss & Co.

Inc.’s list of Private Titans includes those that have reached the threshold of $250 million in annual sales but continue to evolve. Large com­panies, both public and private, often stumble over their own bulk. Economies of scale begin to fail them. They get too big to maneuver in a fast-changing market. Others simply ride the momentum of a brand until it fades. Our Private Titans list, developed in partnership with audit, tax, and advisory firm Grant Thornton and the research platform PitchBook (which has the same owner as Inc.), is based on a measurement of each company’s sales growth and employee growth, as well as its power of social media, the telltale sign of how effective any company is in reaching its customers or target audience.

These are some of the truly iconic American companies. They include Levi Strauss, maker of the definitive America garment, and In-N-Out Burger, the California-based cult quick-serve restaurant that pioneered the gourmet burger five decades before anyone at Shake Shack picked up a spatula. Lynsi Snyder, 35, the granddaughter of In-N-Out founders Harry and Esther Snyder, has no plans to change the company’s status or sell franchises.

Staying private isn’t just about keeping your mouth shut and your books closed. It’s also about being able to pursue a mission. New Age companies such as Specialized Bicycle Components, Yeti, and Clif Bar are as much dedicated to a lifestyle, both corporate and consumer, as they are to selling products. Not that they don’t want to increase sales and profits. But remaining private accords them the privilege of putting other constituencies--community, environment, employees--ahead of Wall Street in the pecking order if they so choose. Publicly owned companies don’t have that option.

Staying private also means having the staying power to get you through wars, financial panics, recessions and depressions, and whatever else history can throw at you. The oldest companies on this list--Levi Strauss (1853), Cargill (1865), S.C. Johnson (1886), Hearst (1887), Carhartt (1889), Sunkist (1893), and Cox Enterprises (1898)--have generations of experience to apply to any scenario.

Private has come into vogue. The number of publicly traded companies in the U.S. is at a modern low. The trend is being underwritten by the billions of dollars in funding now available to startups, which are now under less pressure to feed their growth by using public money. What an astonishing turnabout in the same decade in which tech unicorns have vaulted into the public markets with multibillion-dollar valuations that far exceed their sales--and profits, if they even have any. Case in point: automaker Tesla. It’s a public company with a $50 billion-plus stock market valuation--more than Ford’s. But genius entrepreneur Elon Musk, Tesla’s co-founder and CEO, created a furor in tweeting that he wanted to make the company private, like SpaceX, his commercial space operation, which is soaring to new heights any way you look at it. Musk eventually backed down--but not because he couldn’t raise the money.

Entrepreneurs like Mark Cuban lament that companies like Squarespace have shied away from the public markets. For employees of these firms, going public is the chance to monetize and maximize their equity holdings. For the public, it’s a chance to invest in a growth company. Cuban got extraordi­narily rich that way. The initial public offering is hardly dead. Investors still eagerly await the IPOs of companies such as Stripe, Lyft, and Uber. But for many of the companies on this list, keeping heads down and a focus on the long term will be always take precedence over the glamour of the stock exchanges. That’s what has made them titans.